Hundreds of fans of all ages waited in line for hours to get tickets to the Vietnam and Indonesia AFF Cup 2016 second leg semi-final game set for December 7 at My Dinh National Stadium. Close to a thousand fans spend the night at the stadium in Hanoi from late Friday into Saturday in the hope of purchasing the coveted tickets. Among those are some fans who arrive at the stadium at 4 p.m. Friday to secure a place in line. “I’m a big Vietnam fan and this is the first AFF football event that will be this big and probably will be for a long time,” said one fan. “This is history in the making and I want to be a part of it. I’ve been here for over 14 hours and it’s been like a big tailgate party. I’ve made friends. A lot of us stayed up all night.” All tickets are being sold on a first-come, first-served basis. At 6 a.m. on December 3, an hour before tickets start selling the line at the stadium is over one kilometre long. Indonesia had … [Read more...] about Fans stand in line all night to score AFF Cup 2016 tickets
Big s fans
Euro 2008’s Fan Zones Attract million Visitors
Martin Kallen, chief operating officer of Euro 2008 SA, is delighted by the success of the Fan Zones: "The atmosphere in the Fan Zones is tremendous. Fans from the different nations are having a good time together and creating a friendly mood. The big winners are the fans." Access to the Fan Zones is free. The first matchdays have passed without any significant incidents. In the Basel Fan Zones, 41,000 watched Switzerland's opening game while 50,000 turned up for their second match. The first events in all the other Swiss Fan Zones also went smoothly. In Geneva on Saturday, some 50,000 Portuguese and Turkish supporters, as well as many Swiss, filled the Plaine de Plainpalais, the biggest Fan Zone in Switzerland; during Portugal's second game against the Czech Republic, 75,000 celebrated at the Fan Zone. On Monday, the Bundesplatz in Berne was a sea of orange, with 50,000 Dutch fans cheering on their team. In Zurich, meanwhile, at the Bellevue Fan Zone, French and Romanian supporters … [Read more...] about Euro 2008’s Fan Zones Attract million Visitors
World Cup a big yawn in soccer-hating US
If you look west from Germany these days you'll see America stifling a yawn at the World Cup. Despite a doubling of TV ratings for the first-round matches this month, before the US squad failed miserably, soccer still ranks below televised poker tournaments in a land where baseball, basketball and American football rule. To put it in context, ABC-TV's average rating of 2.5 for the first eight matches it aired represents barely 8 million viewers in a nation of just under 300 million. Only 3.9 million Americans watched the 2002 World Cup final, out of 1.1 billion worldwide. By comparison, nearly 91 million viewers watched this year's Super Bowl, the glitzy climax to the season for America's home-grown form of football. Nearly 39 million watched the Academy Awards, Hollywood's big night, in March and 36 million tuned in for last month's finale of "American Idol," a TV talent show. And on ABC's sports cable network, ESPN, which presumably attracts more serious sports fans, the … [Read more...] about World Cup a big yawn in soccer-hating US
Samsung Galaxy Note II: hands-on with the new S Pen-toting phablet
Samsung's got a handful of announcements to offer its mobile fans at IFA this year, and it's started big: with the Galaxy Note II. The new Android device packs a larger 5.5-inch, 1,280 x 720 16:9 screen, but still falls roughly within the same generous footprint of its predecessor. A year on, we've now got a more powerful SoC, up from a dual-core 1.4GHz processor to a new quad-core 1.6GHz Exynos chipset (yes, that's even faster than the one found in the Galaxy S III) and Android Jelly Bean right out of the box. Samsung's putting a lot of focus on making the most of all that screen space and S Pen functionality. We got our hands (both of them) on the Galaxy Note II just a few hours early, so after the gallery, skip past the break for our first impressions. The Galaxy Note II speaks the same design language as the Galaxy S III, with a glossy shimmering plastic finish that envelops the back of the device, plus the same slim bezel. The button space below the screen has been slimmed … [Read more...] about Samsung Galaxy Note II: hands-on with the new S Pen-toting phablet
S.Korean band Big Bang likely to perform in Vietnam
South Korean well-known pop band Big Bang is likely to perform in Ho Chi Minh City in the middle of this April. On February 6, photo of the five-piece group has been released on the official banner of Coca Cola’s “Sound Fest 2012” concert, hitting the band’s fan community who had flashmob performances titled “Bring Big Bang to Vietnam” in Hanoi and HCMC last December with the hope of drawing the band’s attention so that they could make trip to Vietnam. Though YG Entertainment, the band’s managing company, has not made any confirmation, the event’s organizers said Big Bang will join other foreign and local singers to perform at Phu Tho Stadium on April 14. Around 6,000 tickets are scheduled to be released. Formed in 2006, the band includes G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Daesung and Seungri. Big Bang made their debut in August in 2006 at the Gymnastics Arena in Seoul Olympic Park during the YG Family concert. Following the … [Read more...] about S.Korean band Big Bang likely to perform in Vietnam